Successful recruitment today is not just about knowing where to find the best people but also how to attract them. Everything, from time and money to ongoing recruitment management can be made more efficient if the best candidates are keen to work for your business. The recruitment process is an important part of that – how you manage and organise it can have a big impact on how easy it is to attract experienced and talented candidates to apply for the role you’re advertising.
1. Start from a position of insight
It’s essential to know exactly what you’re looking for if you want to ensure you attract the right candidates to your advertised role. That means identifying exactly what the role will involve and the metrics you’re going to use to measure success within it. What attributes, skills and experience do your current top performers have and what is it about the business and the role that would attract the best people?
2. Create powerful recruitment materials
The job description and interview questions are essential tools to both attract and refine available candidates. Job descriptions need to be functional and informative but it’s also worth including a personal message to the right person. This is basically a description that goes over and above the details of the role to include opportunities or attributes that will attract ideal candidates, such as where they will be making a difference or what kind of culture they will be working within. When you’re drafting interview questions for candidates, focus on extracting information about how they approach situations and what their priorities are, as well as just what they have done. Use each question as another opportunity to demonstrate what success looks like in this role and why the candidate should want to take it.
3. Aim for a wide reach
Use all resources available to help find the ideal candidate, from jobs boards through to recruitment websites. Remember that there is value in working with a recruitment agency to ensure that you benefit from reaching as many suitable candidates as possible.
4. Treat your candidates well
It is a far better approach to treat candidates as you would clients or customers, as opposed to making them feel inferior. Ideally, you want every applicant to leave the process wanting to get the job, whether or not they are right for it.
5. Invest in the process
Reduce your initial pool of applicants to only those who genuinely have the potential to do a great job. Dedicate resources to interviewing the real A+ candidates and don’t waste time interviewing other applicants “just in case.”
6. If you find a great candidate, make an offer
You don’t necessarily have to go through the entire process just to get to the end of it. If you wait until you’ve processed all the candidates, that one you had a really good feeling about may have taken a job elsewhere.
We are specialists in effective recruitment and finding exactly the right people for your business. Contact the 2i Recruit team to talk about your business needs today and see how we could help you attract experienced and talented candidates to apply for the role you’re advertising.
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